Chapter 33

A small weaponprecisely placed may defeat more enemies than a tool of great destruction.

~ Ranger Lord Vlerion of Havartaft

Kaylina stared down at the beast, the great furred body unmoving at her feet. Faint pops and groans sounded as he transformed back into Vlerion, the shredded remains of his clothes barely covering him. He didn’t stir except for the faint expansion and contraction of his ribcage with breaths that had grown soft and even.

The crossbow quarrel that had struck him in the shoulder remained, embedded deep in his flesh. Kaylina put aside the book and mace and rested a hand on his back.

“Vlerion?”

He didn’t move.

In the catacombs, the last time he’d changed into the beast, he’d disappeared after killing the fur shark, then soon returned as himself. If he’d fallen unconscious after that battle, it couldn’t have been for long. But this battle had been more extended and, with so many foes, it might have taken more out of him. Maybe the powerful magic that infused the beast drew upon Vlerion’s own stamina and constitution. Was it possible that if he had to fight long enough and hard enough, it would kill him?

“He’s not dead,” she told herself.

Kaylina eyed the quarrel and thought of the invaders that had made it up the stairs and had to be, even now, fighting the castle defenders and trying to reach the king. When he came to, Vlerion would want to help, but having a quarrel embedded in the shoulder muscle of his sword arm would impede him.

Though it might not be the most medically sound thing to do, she tore the remains of his shirt to create bandages and gripped the quarrel. Better to remove it while he was unconscious and couldn’t feel it. His ranger doctor could fix the wound later.

She pulled out the quarrel, wincing as his muscle spasmed.

“Vlerion?”

Maybe that had woken him. But, no. His eyes didn’t open.

She tied the strips of the shirt around the wound as a bandage.

Remembering the quarrel in his thigh, Kaylina summoned her strength to roll him over. He wasn’t as big when he wasn’t the beast, but he was still a tall and muscular man, and she grunted with the effort. When he flopped onto his back, she could see the quarrel through a great tear in his trousers. It had broken off, and she couldn’t tell if it was near a vein. Reluctantly, she left it in.

A faint groan came from Vlerion.

“There you are,” Kaylina whispered, shifting closer to his head and watching his eyes. “Time to wake up, Vlerion. Your people need you.”

She needed him too. She touched his jaw.

“I would kiss you, to see if my lips have some magic to them, but your mouth was dripping blood a minute ago, and there are bodies everywhere. I’m not feeling moved to romantic overtures.” Despite her attempt to keep her tone light and avoid looking at the carnage, her voice had an edge of hysteria to it. She needed to get out of the gory dungeon. Badly.

In case it would help, Kaylina kissed Vlerion on the blood-free forehead.

His eyelids fluttered. She trusted he’d been about to waken anyway and that her lips were not magical.

“I was hoping… you’d read to me more.” Vlerion turned his head left and right, enough to glimpse some of the bodies, and he winced. From more than physical pain, she knew. “I was also hoping… you’d never see me… see this.”

Kaylina had seen the beast in the catacombs already and almost said so, but this had been far worse. Far gorier.

“I didn’t particularly want to.” She helped him sit up. “A lot of the Virts ran up the stairs. Hopefully, the castle guard has already rounded them all up, but they might need your help.”

Frowning, Vlerion looked around the cave until he saw the hole and rubble on the far side of the pond. “I briefly had time to wonder where they came from before…” He waved vaguely at himself, then stood, wincing again when he put weight on the leg that had been shot. His pain didn’t keep him from looking her over. He lifted a hand toward the flap dangling from her torn dress, but didn’t touch it. “Are you injured? Were you…?”

“Just a couple of bumps. But I need to get out of here.” She also needed to clear her name, but if assassins were in the middle of trying to kill the royal family, this wouldn’t be the time to plead her case again to the queen.

Vlerion eyed the front of the cell, the warped hinges all that remained of the gate. “Someone already opened the door.”

“Someone has strength that makes the Kar’ruk seem puny.”

“Yes,” he murmured, looking at her again. “I’m glad I didn’t hurt you.”

“Me too. You’ll have to teach me the lyrics to that song later so I can sing it to calm you if need be.”

“It’s called ‘Lake of Triumph and Sorrow.’” Vlerion stepped over the body of the guard and limped out of the cell, finding his sword lying on the ground. He pointed toward the stairs. “My brother wrote it. He could play numerous instruments and had the soul of a poet. It still surprises me that he wasn’t any better than me or our father at controlling the beast.”

Kaylina returned the book to the desk and grabbed her knife, sling, and pouch of rounds. “It’s hard to thwart a curse.”

“It is indeed.”

A distant boom reverberated through the cliff. It sounded like it had come from farther away than the castle, but it was hard to tell from deep underground.

“You’re right.” Vlerion picked up his pace, gritting his teeth against his leg wound to take the stone stairs three at a time. “They may still need help up there.”

“I’m ready.” Kaylina hurried after him. “But what should I do if we run into the queen?”

“She won’t be out in the middle of a battle.”

“Her guards might be.”

Vlerion paused to look back at her. “Maybe you should stay down here. Or better yet, leave through that hole. It must connect to the catacombs. According to the maps we have of the city underground, there’s almost a mile between the end of the tunnels and this cliff, but the Virts could have been excavating a new passageway for a long time. There are so many tunnels and hidden doors down there that the patrollers might not have noticed another one.”

“I’d rather stay with you.”

“To read to me if I go berserk again?”

“Well, I returned the book to the jail library. I’m not a thief. And that didn’t work as well as one might have hoped.” She raised her eyebrows. “Are you likely to, uhm, go berserk again?” Become the beast. “It seemed to take a lot out of you.”

Vlerion straightened his spine and lifted his chin, as if to deny that he was anything but hale and full of vigor, but he did say, “Usually, at least a few hours have to pass before it can happen again. Sometimes, even days. I haven’t attempted to test it fully, for reasons I trust you understand, but turning does bleed off the dangerous edge for a time, even if my emotions are roused again right after I change back into myself.”

Another distant boom sounded, the stone walls vibrating with the explosion. Vlerion looked up and then back at Kaylina.

“I’m sticking with you,” she said firmly. “Besides, there could be a second wave of invaders waiting in that tunnel, and I’d run right into them with only my sling and this little letter opener to protect me.”

Not that she thought she would be in much danger if she did encounter the Virts. Their mission had little to do with her. She didn’t want to think too much about how the beast had killed a bunch of men motivated by a desire for equality and better working conditions, not, as far as she knew, real malice or a craving for power and wealth. Still, someone on their side had burned her castle, so she wasn’t inclined to feel immensely sorry for them. Assassinations also weren’t an acceptable way to work toward one’s goals.

“All right.” Vlerion returned to taking the stairs three at a time.

Kaylina hurried to catch up.

When they pushed open the stone door into a hallway on the ground floor of the castle, it was empty, but shouts and clangs came from the direction of the courtyard.

An animal roared. Was that a taybarri? Maybe the rangers had gotten in and were battling the invaders. Maybe Vlerion and Kaylina wouldn’t be needed.

The smaller booms of muskets rang out from the walls and the courtyard. Another greater boom sounded in the distance. From the harbor?

“They’re attacking from multiple fronts.” Sword in hand, Vlerion ran toward the courtyard. “Or there are ships in the harbor raising a distraction.”

“I thought they were supposed to attack tonight.” Kaylina raced after him, but she was ill-prepared for a battle against men with firearms.

“They may have been testing you by feeding you that information.” He glanced back as he ran.

Yes, if the fire had been a test, the information could have been too. That made sense. Nobody trusted Kaylina. Except maybe Vlerion.

He paused in the doorway leading to the courtyard. Blue fur streaked past not five yards ahead of them.

“Crenoch!” Vlerion called softly, his voice almost drowned out by the boom of a cannon firing from the castle wall.

His mount spun and came back to the doorway. Kaylina peeked under Vlerion’s arm and glimpsed a second taybarri across the courtyard, the great beast biting one of the invaders.

“Is that Levitke?” Kaylina didn’t see any other taybarri or rangers, though numerous castle guards fought intruders both in the courtyard and on the castle wall.

“Yes.” Vlerion swung up onto Crenoch’s back and offered a hand to her.

But a roar came from the other taybarri. After biting and trampling the intruder into the stone pavers, Levitke charged across the courtyard toward Crenoch. No, she was coming toward Kaylina. Their eyes met, and Kaylina somehow grasped that the taybarri was glad to see her and expected Kaylina to ride her.

“I’ll go on that one,” she told Vlerion.

Vlerion didn’t look like he wanted to let her get that far from him, but Levitke butted Crenoch out of the way to get close to the doorway and Kaylina.

“So I see,” Vlerion said as she gripped the thick fur and pulled herself astride. “Be careful. Stay on the outskirts. This isn’t your battle.”

No sooner had the words come out than Levitke surged toward a knot of intruders fighting guards near the castle gate.

“Tell her that.” Kaylina alternated gripping her mount and loading her sling while trying not to fall off. The meager weapon might not help much, but she didn’t feel as useless with the great muscles and fangs of the taybarri under her.

Vlerion grunted and nudged Crenoch to ride at Levitke’s side.

Kaylina used her sling to fire at one of the intruders, but she’d never before shot from horseback—and certainly not taybarri back. The round went wide.

“This is going to take a little getting used to,” she muttered.

The world blurred, and Levitke flashed, magically disappearing, then reappearing twenty yards ahead, in the middle of the fighters.

Heart pounding, Kaylina found herself surrounded by swords and maces whipping through the air. A shield slammed into Levitke’s side. She spun and bit it, then tore it from the invader’s grip. It flew ten feet and clanged against a stone wall. Next, the taybarri lunged into him, jaws snapping for his throat.

Levitke’s swift movements made it hard to stay on her back, much less contribute to the battle. Kaylina almost lost her sling as she was forced to grip fur with both hands.

“A lot of getting used to,” she corrected.

Crenoch smashed into a pair of invaders that had been fighting as a team. He snapped for the throat of the one on the left as Vlerion, face set in his usual expressionless battle mask, slashed at the one on the right. The invader jerked a shield over his head to deflect the sword blow, but Vlerion shifted his grip and swept the blade in again, this time slipping under the man’s defenses. It cut deep, and the invader pitched backward, losing his shield. Crenoch trampled him.

Levitke was relentless as well, biting and often lifting a front limb to claw at the invaders. Unlike normal animals, the intelligent taybarri knew exactly who the enemies were.

Feeling she should do something to help, Kaylina lifted her sling and sought a target she could hit even with her mount gyrating about. Vlerion’s lessons on the importance of balance came to mind again. If only she’d had more than one day of training.

“Get the ranger,” someone from the wall called. An invader. He’d downed one of the guards firing a cannon toward the harbor and looked to be sabotaging the weapon.

Another invader with a blunderbuss crouched beside him. He lifted his firearm toward Vlerion, who was still swinging his sword, trying to make his way to the gate.

Kaylina couldn’t take the time to think or aim. She loosed a round at the man targeting Vlerion, doing her best to compensate for Levitke’s movement. Fortunately, the invader had to wait to fire to make sure he didn’t hit his allies, and he didn’t notice her—or, if he did, didn’t consider her a threat. Her round landed before he pulled the trigger.

Her aim was off, but it still struck him, hitting him in the chest instead of the forehead. The blow was enough to startle him, and he dropped his blunderbuss. It went off, scattering shot, before it bounced off the wall and into the courtyard.

“Thanks.” Vlerion had seen the threat—and her hitting it.

Pleased, Kaylina nodded and looked for another target.

One man noticed she was armed and sprang for her, an axe raised. Levitke charged at him. He swung the weapon toward the taybarri’s shoulder.

“No,” Kaylina barked, aiming her sling at him.

But Levitke was so fast that she whipped her neck about to catch the swinging axe by the haft before it connected. When Kaylina’s round hit the man in the forehead—it was much easier to target someone so close—his hands spasmed, and he released the weapon. Levitke hurled it across the courtyard.

“Someone get that portcullis open,” came a yell from outside the castle walls. Was that Captain Targon?

Kaylina glimpsed more blue-furred taybarri charging up the ramp, a few bumping into armed men on the landing outside, trying to get in to help.

“It’s stuck,” a guard crouching near the gate, staying out of the battle, yelled back.

One of the invaders gave him a quick nod. Was that guard also being bribed? He looked like he was blockingaccess to the portcullis rather than trying to get it unstuck.

Frowning, Kaylina lifted her sling. Levitke raced in the opposite direction, toward double wooden doors across the courtyard that two intruders had entered, but Kaylina managed to twist and get a shot off. It struck the guard in the face as Targon appeared at the portcullis.

Kaylina winced. If she’d guessed wrong about that guard, the captain of the rangers had witnessed her shoot an ally.

“Open the gate,” Targon barked.

One of the other guards, realizing Vlerion, Kaylina, and the taybarri had taken down all the invaders around him, ran to obey. He frowned at the man on the ground, who was gripping his forehead where the lead round had struck, and stepped over him to pull the lever. It wasn’t stuck. The portcullis rose, and uniformed men and black-clad rangers on taybarri rushed inside.

“Take back the cannons!” Targon yelled. “And someone make sure the king and queen are defended.”

Levitke ran through the open doors, her size making the wide hallway seem small. Kaylina caught herself ducking under the ceiling beams as the taybarri raced after the invaders that had run inside. She glanced back, having no idea where they were going, and was relieved to see Crenoch and Vlerion pounding after her.

Levitke turned into another hallway, this one equally wide, and, when they crossed an intersection, Kaylina recognized the area. They’d exited the dungeon near there.

The hallway opened into a great chamber with wide stairs at the end. The two intruders had reached the landing at the top.

A boom from somewhere nearby made a chandelier above their heads tremble and clink, but it was Levitke that drew the men’s gazes and made them gawk.

Certain they were up to no good, Kaylina lifted her sling, but the intruders darted into a hallway behind the landing and out of view.

“The royal rooms are that way,” Vlerion said as Crenoch caught up. “The king and queen.”

Both taybarri sprang up the stairs but couldn’t fit into the narrower hallway at the top. Kaylina slid off and let Vlerion take the lead. Without the fearsome Levitke, she was only a girl with a sling.

Outside, the booms dwindled, and Kaylina trusted Targon and the rest of the rangers were securing the defenses.

At the end of the hall, two castle guards lay dead before a splintered door that had been knocked partway off its hinges. Vlerion rushed into the spacious sitting room of an opulent suite with multiple fireplaces, but the rugs were askew and furniture knocked over. An older man with a confused and terrified expression crouched between two guards, who were fighting off the intruders, swords clanging against maces and shields.

Vlerion rushed into the fray, springing upon the invaders from behind. Kaylina lifted the sling in case they needed help.

Someone ran out of a bedroom with a woman slung over his shoulder. The queen. She wasn’t moving and had to be unconscious. Hopefully not dead.

Kaylina fired at the kidnapper. With her feet on solid ground, her aim was impeccable, and the round took the man above the ear. He dropped the queen and whirled toward Kaylina as he grabbed the side of his head.

She readied another round, but the kidnapper had drawn a throwing knife, and he hurled it at her. She dropped flat to the floor to avoid it, but it grazed her shoulder, burning as it sliced through her dress and cut flesh.

He yanked out another knife. Kaylina rolled behind an upturned divan as someone leaped over it and her. Vlerion.

The intruder shifted his aim, hurling the knife at Vlerion. He whipped his sword up and deflected it with a clang. It struck the brick of a hearth across the room.

Vlerion reached the intruder, sword again ready to attack. The man must have realized he couldn’t win against a ranger because he spun and tried to run. But he tripped over the unmoving queen. She groaned at the contact—at least she was alive—but didn’t otherwise stir. Vlerion plunged his sword deep into the man’s heart.

The suite fell silent, the intruders all downed. A guard gripping his side with blood streaming between his fingers staggered out of the queen’s room. He started to nod at Vlerion but then spotted Kaylina. His eyes bulged.

“The queen’s poisoner! Pargorak, get her.” The guard ran to stand in front of the queen but pointed at one of the two guards protecting the king in the corner, their elderly monarch on the floor with his hands over his head.

“I came to help.” Kaylina opened her hand and held up her sling.

The two guards rushed toward her.

“No,” Vlerion barked and intercepted them. Even as he bowled them over, he waved for Kaylina to get out of the suite.

Though she wanted to defend herself, to say she’d helped Vlerion and therefore had to be innocent, the queen hadn’t seen her fighting at his side. She wasn’t even awake. And the king? He wasn’t looking at anything but the floor. As far as the royals knew, nothing had changed since Kaylina had been thrown into the dungeon.

Swearing, she ran out into the hallway. She didn’t know where to go but thought if she reached the taybarri, Levitke might help her escape.

She and Crenoch were still on the landing, but two other taybarri had arrived and brought more rangers. Kaylina almost crashed into Targon when he stepped in front of the hallway exit. She flailed to a stop, but he grabbed her arm.

Would he believe the queen’s guards and take her personally back to the dungeon?

Vlerion caught up with Kaylina, looming at her shoulder and meeting Targon’s gaze. “She’s helping us.”

“I saw.” Targon released Kaylina.

“But a mead maker framed her, convinced the queen she’s trying to poison her.” Vlerion glanced back down the hallway. He might have delayed those guards, but he wouldn’t have severely hurt someone on his side, and Kaylina wasn’t surprised when one surged into the doorway. “She needs to get out of here,” Vlerion added to the captain. “I’ll explain later.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Get her, Captain Targon,” the other guard yelled on his way out of the suite. “Don’t let her go!”

Targon stepped aside so Kaylina could pass while the taybarri shifted to block the hallway, to buy time for her to escape.

She appreciated that, and that Vlerion ran at her side to make sure nobody impeded her, but as they sprinted back to the dungeon—and the escape tunnel the intruders had excavated—she feared she was about to be labeled a criminal and a fugitive.

“You’re still alive,” Vlerion said softly, as if he could guess her thoughts. “There’s always hope. I’ll make sure Targon knows the truth, and I’ll do my best to explain it to the royals.”

“Thank you.”

Vlerion smiled and patted her shoulder as they descended into the dungeon. “After this, Targon would be a fool not to want to continue your ranger training.”

“After I hit a couple of people in the heads with sling rounds?”

“After you managed to shoot a weapon without falling off your taybarri. That’s an advanced skill.” He winked. “You’re a natural.”

“I just want to make mead.”

“You’re destined for more.”